


Hoopla

by HerbertBest



Category: Game Grumps
Genre: Angst, Coping, Engagement, F/M, First Meetings, Holidays, Humor, Meet the Family, Romance, Thanksgiving
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-10
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-01-15 15:57:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 1,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12324204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HerbertBest/pseuds/HerbertBest
Summary: Dan takes Holly home to meet his parents, but she soon feels both intimidated by the close-knit nature of the Avidan clan and the pressure to fit in.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> A quick prologue chapter; this is a part of the same verse my Big Bang was set in!

“Do you swear they won’t mind these cannolis?” Holly was shifting back and forth in place, uncomfortable, trying to ignore the nervous grumbling of her stomach. 

“What are you worried about?” Dan said, slipping his keys into the front door lock. “We bought kosher!” Holly groaned. “They’re gonna love you, babe. This is going to be the best dinner we’ve ever had.” 

Two seconds later, Holly found herself standing among Dan’s parents, being fussed over. Someone had her jacket – someone else had her box. It was a bit much. There seemed to be hundreds of Avidans swarming her, sweetening her, buttering her up. 

Above it all she heard his mother’s voice shouting, “Danny, why did you bring Holly all the way out here?”

Dan cleared his throat, wrapped his arm around Holly’s shoulder and bravely faced the crowd. “Mom, Deb, Avi – everyone – Holly and I are getting married.”

The universal chorus that greeted her was sudden and sharp. “What?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Holly tries to be helpful.

“Why is everyone so freaked out?” Dan had a mugfull of green tea, and he was hovering around the kitchen, trying to keep his mother and sister from working too hard, chopping this, stirring that. He settled down to knead away at a big lump of challa dough, his hands covered in flour. Holly glanced around, trying to figure out how to make herself useful in this strange land. There was a big bowl of batter ready to be made into sufganoit on the kitchen table, and the brisket was roasting away in the oven. “It’s just a wedding! You had one, Pop had one…”

Holly was staring at the pot of oil bubbling merrily on the stovetop and wondered how anyone could cook with it and not die. It seemed oppressively, enormously hot, and incredibly deep and dangerous, but Dan’s mother dropped the dough into it and she leaned back to avoid the splashing as the golden blobs surfaced to roil about in circles on the surface. Holly briefly found it metaphorical, then leaned against the kitchen counter to rest her knees under her chin.

“I didn’t know, but I hoped,” his mother said, and planted a skimmer in Holly’s hand. “Have you talked to Rabi Goldman? Tell me you’re gonna pick spring and not winter, I don’t want Mom to have to schlep through the snow at her age!”

“No! It was kind of a spur of the moment thing,” he admitted.

“Oh Dan. I always worry about you. Not everything in life has to be a thrill.”

“Excuse me. I hope my romance with Holly will continue to be fuckin’ thrilling as shit.”

“What about you, Holly?”

“Me too,” she said nervously. 

“Happiness is good,” his mother said. “We’ve been waiting a long time for our Dan to find the right girl, y’know.” 

“I have a sneaking suspicion,” Dan said, digging himself wrist-deep into the challa, “that you were lying when you said you didn’t care if I ever got married.”

“Only a little,” she said, and bussed the top of Holly’s head as she dipped the skimmer into the oil, turning up nuggets of golden brown beauty.


	3. Chapter 3

Dinner passed painlessly. The family was good at filling in the silences Holly provided, and she tried to follow their rapid-fire questions. After she helped Dan’s mother clear the table, the family scattered; Dan’s father dragged him off to watch a soccer match, and his grandmother and mother and sister offered her succor and curiosity in the comfort of the kitchen. But soon it was too much – the attention, all of it. Holly slipped out the back, and found herself near the birdfeeder. Which was deserted, aside from a tiny sparrow.

On her knees, she clicked her tongue, offering up a handful of birdseed. Dan found her there, trying to convince the little bird to eat from her hands.

“I knew you’d find the only bird in the neighborhood,” he said. 

“I’m sorry,” she smiled. “I just wanted to be by myself for a bit. Your family’s great, but there’s a lot of them, and I kind of…there wasn’t enough wine,” Holly said.

“I can go…” he began.

“No,” she said, half-begging. “Stay.”

So Dan filled his big hands with birdseed and crouched, offering his fingertips to the wild ones. They came up to peck curiously at the tips of his fingertips, and Holly watched him proudly.

She’d turn him into a bird whisperer yet.


	4. Chapter 4

Holly was not a football person. She understood the basics and kept up with the Giants because they were Dan’s team, but otherwise the concepts before her passed her by, leaving her feeling slightly foolish and dazed.

Dan snuggled up against her side, shoveling in big bites of noodle kugel between shouts of delight or dismay as his Giants succeeded or failed. Avi kept pace with him, shout for shout.

It was an interesting microcosm of genetic emotional transference. Like squinting through a microscope at a fleck of his skin or a strand of his hair, it was like squinting down at all of the pieces and shards of the building blocks that made Dan Dan.

The Giants lost and Dan consoled himself with an oversized chunk of squash pie. Holly helped his mom do the dishes once they were done; Dan joined in to dry.

“I love you and I want to be with you,” Dan said – his voice was decisive, quiet, and he fit his long arm around her waist as if it had been made to go there.

For the first time that night, Holly felt completely settled, as if she belonged there without question. 

As if she were officially part of the family.


	5. Chapter 5

They were cuddled together in the bottom bunk of his childhood bed. Dan could have well bought them a suite, but he liked this closeness. Liked the feeling of being close to her, and home at the same time.

Holly snuggled deeper into his embrace. His big hand came around and stroked her belly, then took both of her hands into the warm embrace of his.

“I adore you,” he mumbled sleepily. “Thank you for coming with me.”

“Thank you for bringing me,” she thought.

All of the ambivalence in her mind disappeared when Dan held her like that. And that was why she knew she was in the right place.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dan takes Holly to Temple.

Holly had never been to temple before.

She sat quietly, curiously, listening to the cantor sing, her hands folded against her lap. Dan was wearing his yarmulke, and his fingers were gentle and light upon her wrist.

Holly had no idea what the words were – she’d long lost touch with Judaism, long lost touch with anything but her faith in her own witchy ways. But sitting beside Dan, things felt right.

The rabbi was kind afterwards. He didn’t even touch her stomach, which she considered a blessing.

There was coffee and cake afterwards, and with her tattoos and her pale skin, she sat to the side and awkwardly conversed with Dan’s cousins about the weather and the way they were going to have to deal with a cousin going off the rails. Another cousin was getting married. A third had a bat mitzvah to attend. Holly shyly sat back and let them talk, and Dan interacted with each person in his gentle, warm way.

And then the service was over, and it was time to go back to the house. They had packing to do, and a life to return to, but for now she was content to drift beside Dan like an untethered balloon. Dan wrapped his arm around her shoulder, and the baby kicked and rolled like a pinball against her insides. The winter sun shined on.

For the first time in the whole trip, she felt as if she belonged to something important.


End file.
